Google Play Store is banning all ‘Sugar Dating’ apps with its revised content policy

Google Play Store has decided to ban all “Sugar Dating” apps from the platform starting September 1. This new ban was announced alongside a whole bunch of changes that Google published on its support page. The ban on “Sugar Dating” apps is a part of its new restrictions on sexual content. And that’s not all, the Google Play Store is also previewing app set IDs, adding a new Family Policy, and improving on the Enforcement policy that it currently has in place. All these new and revised policies, including ones like the Device and Network Abuse policy, permissions policy, etc, will all come into effect from September 1.

All these new policy changes made by Google on the Google Play Store have been shared via a post on the Google Play Console support page. The post mentions that a whole list of policy changes but one of the primary ones involve the ban on apps that deal with “compensated sexual relationships”, aka sugar dating. Google is applying a blanket ban on sexual content and is updating its Inappropriate Content policy to renew the ban on sexual content. This ban will crackdown on apps like SDM, Spoil, Sugar Daddy, and Suger Daddy that are still available on the Google Play Store.

Other changes on the Google Play Store that will come into effect starting September 1 include a developer preview of app set ID for analytics or fraud prevention. Google is also adding some new restrictions to the Family Policy requirements. This applies to identifiers used in apps that target children on the platform. Google has also mentioned that developers will have to comply with all policy changes by September 1 except for ad ID changes. There is also an addition of a new section under the Enforcement policy. This new caveat states that inactive or abandoned developer accounts will be closed after they have been dormant for more than a year along with some other factors.

From October 15 onwards, Google is also going to redefine its Device and Network Abuse policy that is going to prohibit apps or SDKs with interpreted languages like Javascript from violating Google Play Store policies. There is also a new Permissions policy that will need developers to provide requirements for the use of Accessibility APIs and IsAccessibilty Tool.

And there is also a revised User Data policy that will prohibit linking persistent device identifiers to personal and sensitive data. This particular revision will come into effect from October 28 and is going to add a new data privacy and security section to the User Data policy.

Additionally, Google is also updating policies like the Inappropriate Content policy. Google Play Store’s Financial Services policy is going to get updated on September 15 and it is going to "clarify the definition of the total cost of the loan and require all personal loan apps be properly tagged under the Finance category". Google is also adding new requirements for personal loan apps in countries like India and Indonesia.

From September 29 onwards, the Store Listing and Promotion policy will get updated to prohibit spam text and graphics in titles, icons, along with developer names for apps. Google is also updating its Ads policy on October 4 to indicate changes in usage on Android advertising ID.